Love is in the air…

Yes, February, the month of all things lovey-dovey, is almost upon us, so we’ll devote this issue of the Hubbub to tell you about the events we’ve got lined up for all you romantics out there.

First up is our Speed Book Dating evening, on Friday February 6th at 7pm (tickets at the Hayridge counter). If you’ve never tried it before, it’s a hoot; you get one minute to talk about a favourite book to a total stranger, and then move on round. During the course of the evening, everyone gets the chance to talk to everyone else about their favourite book, so you’ll get the chance to persuade everyone there that the book you’re championing is worth a read, and they’ll do the same to you. You’ll come out of the evening with lots of reading recommendations – and who knows, it might be the start of a whole new chapter…

 

Recommend a Book You’ve Loved

 

If you can’t make our Speed Book Dating, you can always drop by and write details about the books you love the most on our display boards. Other people will be able to see what you like, and we’ll post a photograph on the Hubbub each week in February. And, we’ll order in copies of the titles you recommend so others can share your passion. So come, on, share the joy!
 

Design a Valentine’s Day Card

 
Thinking of sending a Valentine card to that special someone? Why not make it more personal and design one of your own? Show us your creations, and we have some super prizes lined up for the best entries. There’s four age categories:, Under 5, 6-11, 12-16 and 17+, so you have a great chance of winning. Entry forms are available at the Hayridge desk.

 

101 Ways to Say “I Love You”

Help us  write 101 ways to say ‘I love you’ by adding to our washing line in the teen area. Hearts, pens and pegs available at the desk.

 

 

 

 

 Mothers' Day Gift Problems? Sorted!

If you always struggle for ideas for something special to give mum for mothers day, look no further. We'll be hosting a "kids and dads" craft event on February 21st designed to guarantee getting you brownie points on the big day. Just remember to keep it a secret...

Your wish granted: Chocolate Making

After asking you to suggest ideas for events, our local teen group wanted to make chocolates for Valentines Day, and so we granted their wish! We’ll be running a session with them where they’ll be able to create their own chocolate selection complete with a handmade gift box, so it’ll be a special treat for a loved one (assuming any survive "quality control" tasting during the day...). If you’re aged between 12 and 16, feel free to join in the fun (you'll need a ticket), and don’t forget to tell your friends!

 

Vote for February’s Teen Film

Wanna watcha movie this month? Cullompton Youth Voice will be showing a teens-only movie, and want to know what you would like to see.  If you are over 12, fill in a slip at the desk or use the response box at the top of this blog post to make a suggestion by Saturday 8th February.  We'll show the film the following Saturday, 15th February at 11am.  It’s all completely free so it’s a fab way to come and chill out with your friends.

 

Meet Children’s Author Barbara Spencer

Here’s a chance to meet a wonderful children’s author, for free!  Barbara Spencer will be visiting the Hayridge on Tuesday 17th February at 2pm to talk about her latest book “The Amazing Brain of O C Longbotham.” Ask for your ticket at the front desk and come and hear about how Barbara puts her stories together!

 

Do-It-Yourself Weddings…

Well, nearly. But do check out these fantastic courses from Learn Devon. Learn some great skills to help you take an active part in your wedding planning:

23 February: DP0064 Digital photography: wedding workshop (£18)

25 February – 5 March: IT0681 Create your own wedding stationery (£36)

These are just the tip of the iceberg as far as adult courses are concerned, so do check out the website at www.learndevon.co.uk

!!STOP PRESS!!

Learn Devon will be hosting an introduction to their IT training courses this Thursday (29th February) at 1pm, so if you've wondered about what they might have to offer, or whether a course is for you, do pop by and they'll be able to point you in the right direction.



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There's No Business like Snow Business

We chose some wonderfully wintry picture books to read last Saturday morning, all featuring snow. We haven't had any snow of our own yet, but we live in hope! We chose One Snowy Night; a classic cosy tale about Percy the Park-keeper, Snowflakes, Snow, It's Snow Day, You Make Me Smile, Betty and the Yeti and Bear's Winter Home. Keep an eye on our upcoming events for our next extra-special story-time, you can find the details here.

The Country Market Comes to The Hayridge
 

We're delighted to welcome members of the Tiverton and District Country Market to the foyer, where their delicious produce will be on sale from Monday 19th to Saturday 31st January.  There will also be a schedule of demonstrations and activities to inspire you to try crochet, rug-making and card-making.  Do try some of the wonderful jams, chutneys and marmalades, and enjoy the local produce. Don't forget that the Farmers' Market runs every Wednesday in the Bull Ring until 1pm and every second Saturday of the month, from 9.30 - 12.30. 

The organisers are always delighted to assemble gift hampers on request. If you let them know your budget and your preferences, they can tailor the selection for you. 

Free Learning Opportunities 

If you are looking to  add some qualifications to your CV to boost your job prospects, look no further than the range of free NVQs that are available through a special deal offered by the Prison Officers Association. The POA courses were originally put together to help prison staff retrain when leaving the service, but now they're available to anyone in Devon. We have a display of the courses available, with contact information, in the corner of the library by the Teens area. And if you have any queries about the programme, the local co-ordinator, Ivan Judd, will be here on Wednesday 21st January at around 11 a.m. and would be delighted to answer any questions you might have.

BOB 75 is Approaching!

The wonderful community of Cullompton really pulled out all the stops to help create a fascinating display for our WW1 Commemoration. Now we are asking for help again as we start to gather photos, artefacts and reminiscences for a display about the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. If you have anything you would be happy to share please pop in and have a word with us. We'd be very grateful if you'd help spread the word too!
 

Don't Forget it's Nearly Time for the Monthly Community Cinema...

The next film showing (which is completely free) will be the every popular Frozen, on Saturday 31st January, at 11am. All ages are welcome, but children under 8 need to be accompanied. Feel free to come in Frozen-inspired outfits if you wish, and sing along!

To help celebrate January's theme of cold and snow, and to tie-in with Frozen, Bev will be running another of her famous Cookie Workshops in the Café. Children can come and ice some of her homemade biscuits for just a pound, and eat them straight away or take them home to savour. All ages welcome, children to be supervised. You can find all the details here. 

 Your Wish is our Command

Our regular teens asked for a Cinema event of their own, and we granted their wish. They chose White House Down, which was shown on Saturday.

So if you have any bright ideas for events or activities of your own, let us know and we might be able to make it happen. 

We've already had one request, for a regular film club; we're thinking of a monthly showing of a film tied to exploring different aspects of film-making. If you think you might be interested in taking part on a regular basis please let us know (you can use the contact box at the top of this page) and if we get more than four respondents, we'll get it off the ground.

 

And Finally...

We're just putting the finishing touches to our February events list, details of which will be available next week. So bookmark our blog to get the low-down on speed book dating, our "books we love" wall, Valentine chocolates, and more!

 

 

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We’re potty about the Hayridge…

…and to prove it, we’ve put on display a replica of the 2000-year old Roman funeral urn that was discovered five years ago in the garden of the old Cullompton Workhouse. The original urn is being safeguarded by the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter following its restoration. The exact replica we have put on display was commissioned by the Cullompton Town Team. The pot was used as a cremation vessel for a man aged about thirty, probably from Gaul or Northern Italy, who (so the archaeologists who investigated the urn tell us) had anaemia and a bad back. It’s an exquisite reminder of Cullompton’s ancient history, and well worth a look the next time you stop by.

Do you have time to get INVOLVEd?



If you are starting the New Year with a little time on your hands, have you thought about putting some of it to good use by volunteering for charity work? Whether you want to meet new friends, help your local community, or get some valuable experience to put on your CV, volunteering is a really rewarding way of spending time. This week, we have a display in our lobby organised by INVOLVE, our local charity volunteer co-ordinating agency. Why not stop by and pick up a leaflet to see what volunteering could do for you?

Incidentally, we should add that the library at the Hayridge could not function as it does without the sterling work performed every week by our own volunteers, Pat and Ann, so please join us in offering a big thank you for all they’ve done in 2014!

And talking about volunteers…

We are hoping to recruit a couple more volunteers to support our latest ventures - (drumroll) - a Lego club and a Coding club.

The Lego club will allow children to learn about design and engineering while having fun with some brilliant Lego sets – including the programmable sets which allow robots and remote-control cars to be built! The Coding club is to help children practice programming with the Scratch and Python computer languages now being taught at school, using our computer training suite upstairs at the Hayridge. Both clubs are likely to be held on Saturday mornings starting (we hope) around March or April, depending on how quickly we can get volunteers involved to help run it.

We’re looking for people with experience of working with children, who can share their enthusiasm for programming and engineering to help the next Bill Gates or James Dyson get started. If you think that sounds like fun, why not drop in and ask for an informal chat about it?

So many courses, so little time

January marks the start of a new term for adult learners, and there are loads to pick from on the Learn Devon website https://www.learndevon.co.uk/ . From IT to art, we’ve got it covered. Just select “Mid Devon” on the drop-down list of Devon regions and click the search button to see what’s on offer at the Hayridge this term. Or, if you need a little help, just pop in to the counter where we have the website on permanent display – we’re happy to help! STOP PRESS - January course choice leaflet now available at the Hayridge counter!

Suffering with Fibromyalgia?

Don't suffer alone. The Cullompton Fibromyalgia group meets every Wednesday at the Hayridge from 1-3:30 pm. Meet for company, gentle exercises, and stimulating speakers (this week our guest speaker is Frank Letch, the amazing mayor of Crediton, who has learned to live without arms). For more details, contact Mary on 01884 839508 (between 10 and 6, please). Together we can make a big difference to our lives.

Got an idea for a club, activity, or event?

We’re always looking for new ideas, so if you’ve got a brilliant idea for an activity or event, or maybe a club that meets at the Hayridge every so often, then do let us know, and we’ll do our best to make it happen. There’s already a lot of clubs and groups that meet here on a regular basis – you can check out a list of them by clicking here – but we’re always happy to add to the list if there’s a need in the community. So if you’ve always wanted to start a clog-dancing group, or want to share your passion for basket-weaving, why not let us know (just use the feedback box at the top of this post) and we'll see if others want to join you!

Coming up…

Don’t forget our gadget workshop on January 20^th, when we will show you how to connect your tablet computer, e-book reader or smartphone to our e-book and e-audiobook service. You can see all our other events in January by clicking here.

And we are still running our monthly author display; in January, our featured author is spy thriller writer Len Deighton - click here to see why we chose him!

 

 

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Welcome to the Hayridge Hubbub

Well, Christmas is behind us, and now it’s time to look forward to the New Year. It’s traditional to start the year with a resolution to do something new or different, and in that spirit our resolution at The Hayridge was to start a blog – and this is it! In each post, we plan to bring you news about the events we’re planning, and to talk about the things that make working here so special – reading, learning, and helping people in whatever way we can. So let’s dive straight in by talking about our January programme, before looking ahead to February and beyond.

Get your Gadgets in Gear!

Did you get a gadget for Christmas – a new tablet PC, or a smartphone? If you did, look out for a couple of events we’ve set up this month. We have a free session on 20th January in which we will show you how to connect gadgets to our e-book and audiobook service. Downloading e-books is completely free, you can set up your reader to display the perfect text size to suit you, and of course you can access our download service from anywhere in the world – ideal if you’re planning to catch some winter sun and don’t want to weigh down your luggage with books. Downloading audio books is another free service you can access anywhere in the world, so if you’d rather just close your eyes and let someone read a book to you, we’ve got that covered too.

The other gadgety event we have for you is a 3-part course starting on 21st January to help you set up and manage your new device. We’ll show you how to access the web, manage your e-mails, and stay safe while online, so if you’ve been given a gadget but can’t get past the “on” button, this is just the job.

 It’s Time to Get Knitting…

We are launching a knitting club for beginners, meeting every Tuesday morning in the Library. If you’ve ever wondered what the difference was between knitting and purling, been bewildered by buttonholes, or find that your gloves always end up with six fingers, then you’re in for a treat. Let our staff lead you gently into the wonderful world of knitting – you’ll never be short of scarves again.


And by starting now, you’ll be amongst others starting at the same time, so there’s no reason to feel shy!

Is your Reading Stuck in a Rut?

If you’re anything like us, you have a small list of favourite authors that you’ve read and read over and again. Re-reading a book by a favourite author can be a great comfort – like going back to a favourite place, or visiting a friend to talk about old times. But sometimes you need to throw caution to the wind and try something new; finding a new author whose style you like can be a true pleasure. And while trying new authors by working through the bookshelves of a library or a bookshop can be a long-winded and frustrating business – getting distracted by the cover artwork or the blurb on the back – we’ve come up with a great way to short-cut the process.

We’ve put together a list of things that can be used to describe a book: long/short, happy/sad, funny/serious and so on. Just come in and tell us four things off our list that are important to you when you are reading, and we’ll reserve four books from the library catalogue for you to try.

Hopefully you’ll find something that tickles your reading buds in the four that we choose for you, but if not, don’t worry – just bring them all back and we’ll try again with four more. And if we have to, four more after that – you get the idea. Why not give it a try? And if you find a new author you love, why not tell us all about it by using the “send” button at the top of this post?

And Speaking of Favourite Authors…

Our centre manager Darryl Harrison talks about his favourite author elsewhere on our web site – check out what he has to say about spy story writer Len Deighton. We’ve selected a number of Deighton books from the library catalogue to put on special display this month, so if Darryl’s enthusiasm rubs off on you, there’ll be a few titles for you to try. Who is your favourite author? Tell us, and we’ll incorporate them into our plan for other special displays through the year!

And there’s more…

Our full January programme can be found here – check it out for details of our fantastic Snowflake Trail for tots, a storytime and our community cinema for children, a special film show for teens, support for people whose New Year resolution was to lose weight or give up smoking, a brilliant craft fair in the lobby featuring local produce, cake icing in the café, and a presentation by Involve, our local charity specialising in volunteering opportunities.

Looking Ahead

We’re already hard at work planning more events for February and March.
February is the month of love – and at the Hayridge we love reading, writing, learning, and supporting Cullompton! We are lining up some exciting author visits – including a virtual visit conducted over Skype – as well as writing workshops, a reprise of our book dating session, a “books you love” wall, and more.

We’ll keep you posted on our February programme right here, so do bookmark us and check for our latest posts!

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